The Trolley Solution from byDanDans and Take IT Studio! positions itself less as a traditional video game and more as a brief, interactive meditation on a famous philosophical conundrum.

“The Trolley Solution is a compilation of point-and-click minigames based on the famous thought experiment originally proposed by Philippa Foot.”

Drawing from Philippa Foot’s renowned ethical thought experiment, which asks whether you would actively divert a runaway train (or tram/trolley) to kill one person in order to save five, the title transforms a grim moral dilemma into a compilation of point-and-click minigames.

The game’s premise is straightforward: you are presented with the original thought experiment, followed by a barrage of increasingly bizarre variants, and asked to choose the outcome. However, the fundamental flaw of The Trolley Solution quickly becomes apparent, it lacks any real stakes. Across its forty interactive vignettes, you are presented with continuous dilemmas, yet none carry any mechanical or narrative weight. There is no fail state; regardless of the levers you pull or the choices you make, you “win” either way. This design choice breeds a sense of passivity, leaving you feeling as though nothing you do actually matters.

Where the title does find its footing is in its surreal charm. The strongest assets here are the sharp sense of humour and the highly entertaining animations. Absurdity is the running theme, breaking up the standard dilemmas with genuinely funny genre shifts. Expect things like Subway Surfer parodies. One vignette tasks you with raising a baby trolley to adulthood via a Tamagotchi-style interface, while another suddenly morphs into an interactive Japanese visual novel where a schoolgirl falls head over heels in love with a trolley.

Yet, despite the charm of these isolated moments, they ultimately feel hollow. The structure closely mirrors a disposable mobile game, the kind you download, tap at for an hour, and promptly delete, never to think of again. It is also worth noting that one of the scenarios is locked behind a piece of DLC that bizarrely costs more than the base game itself, which feels like a misstep in value.

Priced at £8 and available for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, it is undeniably budget-friendly (with no DLC). I have certainly reviewed indie titles that demand more from your wallet, but even at this price point, The Trolley Solution is difficult for me to recommend. Clocking in at under two hours, the sheer lack of engaging gameplay heavily outweighs the comedic value. Did I enjoy it? Yes, but not as a game, I enjoyed it as a slice of nonsense. If you are curious about the humour and the animations, then just watch a YouTube playthrough. It’s a fun watch, but not a very engaging game. Save yourself the £8, and let someone else pull the lever.